Salvia venulosa is a perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 that is native to a very small region of the Western Cordillera in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. It grows at 1500 to 2000 m (4,921.3 to 6,561.7 ft) elevation in deeply shaded wooded gullies. S. venulosa grows less than 1 metres (3.3 ft) tall, with narrow ovate leaves that are 6 to 9 cm (2.4 to 3.5 in) long and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) wide, and violet on the underside. The flower is an unusual wine-red color.

A 2010 phylogenetic study of Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive plant which can induce dissociative effects and is a potent producer of "visions" and other hallucinatory experiences...

and 52 other Salvia species in the subgenus Calosphace suggest that S. venulosa is the closest known relative of S. divinorum.